DIM Dining

DIM Dining is the most recent addition to Antwerp's Michelin one-star list — it was awarded its first star in the 2024 Guide, two years after opening in 2022. The restaurant sits on Oude Beurs in central Antwerp, a five-minute walk from the Grote Markt, in a plainly-furnished ground-floor space dominated by a 12-seat chef's counter along the open kitchen. Chef Dennis Broeckx trained at The Jane and spent two years at Kikunoi in Kyoto before opening DIM with Japanese-trained sake sommelier Ayako Shibata.

The cooking is explicit Belgian-Japanese fusion — the rare example where the two traditions are genuinely integrated rather than just juxtaposed. The signature dishes include a sashimi of North Sea turbot with yuzu and shiso, a slow-cooked Belgian endive with white miso glaze, and a dessert of Hoei-sama ice cream (Japanese chestnut) with Liège syrup. The format is a single tasting menu — six or nine courses — with sake, wine, or non-alcoholic pairings.

The dining room seats 26 total — 12 at the counter, 14 at two four-tops and a six-top — and the counter is the seat to book. Shibata runs a sake programme with 180 labels, the largest outside of London in Europe, with a flight programme designed to track the six- or nine-course menu. Broeckx's kitchen is visible from every seat; the cooking is quiet, focused, and almost meditative.

Lunch tasting is €80 for four courses. Dinner tasting is €120 for six or €190 for nine. Sake pairings are +€95; wine pairings are +€85. The counter seats book first; four-top reservations are released two weeks later.

DIM Dining is the Antwerp solo-dining restaurant. The 12-seat counter, the single-tasting format, the open kitchen, the sake programme — every element is designed for a diner who wants the kitchen and the sake flight to be the entire point. For a solo chef's night out or a food-writer's visit to Antwerp, there is no better seat in Belgium.